


like a seedling in winter

by Runespoor



Category: Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu | Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bechdel Test Pass, Fix-It, Gen, self-indulgent as fuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:14:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23250772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Runespoor/pseuds/Runespoor
Summary: all of Tine’s treasures are garbage, Aunt Hilda says.
Kudos: 10





	like a seedling in winter

**Author's Note:**

> someone on the three-sentence ficathon gave the prompt "Bechdel text fix-it", which rang loudly as Genealogy to my mind, and hahahahaaaaaboy did that not fit the parameter of "three sentences".

The squeak of the door drags Tine out of her drowsiness before whoever opened is even inside, and Tine catches her breath.

The fire was well-stocked when she was sent to her room to sleep, and though it’s been dwindling down for hours, the maids will tend to it in the morning - not in the middle of the night.

Perhaps it’s a thief who thinks she’s asleep? -- but Tine doesn’t have anything a thief would want to steal; all of Tine’s treasures are garbage, Aunt Hilda says. Tine only got to keep the acorn necklace Mommy made for her because Cousin Ishtar got it back from the servants.

She _should_ be asleep; when she still lived in the cold forests of Silesse, and playing outside meant running and jumping in the snow, her eyes would close on their own the moment she heard the last of the bedtime story of the dat, and she’d sleep until the sun came back the next morning.

Here, she’s sent to her room as soon as dinner’s done, where she has to stay there until the servants come to wake her up in the morning, and even playing outside isn’t the same at all; it hasn’t snowed once in all the months she’s been here. She has more to think about here, too, things she knows without being told she can’t ever, ever say aloud, when the sun’s out and the castle guards are around, so when she wakes up at night, that’s when she thinks about them.

Mostly she thinks about Mommy, who lives in a room of the castle very far away from Tine’s room. Aunt Hilda says Mommy’s bad, and Tine can’t visit when Mommy’s too sick to see her. Mommy was never sick in Silesse, but Tine didn’t have trouble sleeping in Silesse either, so maybe that part’s true.

Tine misses her mother a lot, which is why when Mommy enters the room, she thinks she’s dreaming.

Then Mommy raises her candle, and squints with her nose scrunched up, and it doesn’t matter anymore if Tine’s dreaming.

“Mommy!”

Tine throws herself at her mother, and her arms close around Mommy’s waist; she can feel her mother take a sharp, hissing breath, and almost recoil - she did say Tine was growing too big for this, but she’s always laughing when she says that, and tonight she’s not laughing - but Tine squeezes tight, and Mommy’s arms enfold her back in a hug, and for a thousand years all in Tine’s world turns to dizzy, relieved delight.

It’s been weeks since Tine’s last visit to her mother: she’s only allowed to see Mommy at mass services, where Tine has to sit next to Ishtar, and if she makes too much noise or cries, Aunt Hilda will reach over and pinch her; and Mommy sits between two armed guards, and they’re not allowed to talk. If Mommy’s not _too sick_ , Tine’s allowed to eat lunch in her mother’s rooms, and they have the afternoon, until the guards take Tine back to her own room, to wait until dinner’s called.

But for now it’s all gone, and nothing matters but Mommy’s arms; like a blanket fort if blanket forts loved you.

Still, it’s very not-allowed for Mommy to be out of her room, and it’s night-time and she’s alone with Tine - this is _especially_ not-allowed - so she knows that after a while they can’t stay like this.

“Sweetie,” Mommy tries, without breaking away from the hug, but Tine - well-behaved, obedient Tine, so sweet Mommy says she’s her sugar child - doesn’t want to hear it so badly that she hides her head against her mother and squeezes even harder. “Honey, we need to--”

Tine’s mother pauses, and takes a breath. When she speaks next, it’s with the kind of determined cheer Tine associates with starting a birthday cake over from scratch because the cat sent the pan crashing.

“We’re gonna play a game. I wanna play hide and seek. You’re the best at hide-and-seek, so you’re on Mommy’s team, okay? Do you want to play hide-and-seek with Mommy?”

Tine releases her hug just enough to peer up at her mother. She’s not a baby, she can guess Mommy didn’t sneak to Tine’s room with one flickering candle when everyone in the castle is asleep just to play some game, even one as fun as hide-and-seek. And she hopes--

“Are we playing hide-and-seek outside the castle?” Tine whispers back.

Her mother’s arms tighten around her. “Yes, sweetie -- yes.”

Tine can feel a squeal mounting in her chest, and she bites the inside of her cheek, just like she’s learned to do around Aunt Hilda, and speaks through that. “Are we playing hide-and-seek all the way back to Silesse? Silesse’s the best place for hide-and-seek.”

 _Home_ , Tine doesn’t say. She hasn’t been allowed to say it for so long; _this is your home_ , Hilda says. _we’re your family, and thankfully you’re here with us now._

Mommy makes a noise like she’s choking or squealing herself. 

“Oh, you’re my smart little girl!” she whispers, fierce. “I really don’t know what I did to deserve you, yes, we’re going back to Silesse, so you understand why we’ve got to be quick, and we’ve got to be quiet, okay? Here, quick, take my hand, let’s go.”

Tine’s good at quiet; even better since she started living here.

And she knows the way to the kitchens, too - Mommy says in a castle at night it’s easier to leave by the kitchens, because the main entrance is locked. Tine’s mother grew up in a castle (like this one, Tine supposes, but also she hopes not like this one), so she knows things like that, on top of all of the other Mommy things she teaches Tine - like which food to take in the canvas bag Tine finds, and how to use magic - well, Tine wan't actually cast magic spells yet, because she’s still learning how to read, but Mommy teaches her the basics.

Tine’s mother lets out an exclamation of glee when they find, amid the cookbooks, a magic tome that Tine _thinks_ she recognizes, but not completely. “That’s just a Fire, but that’s better than nothing,” Mommy says. “Shame about Thoron, but we’re playing to win, aren’t we, my little mouse?”

Tine nods, beaming, and her mother laughs.

“Well, what are we waiting for? We gotta get moving!”

They’re well on the way back to Silesse - days out of the shadows of the castle - when Tine, seeing the first fallen acorns on the ground, remembers her necklace, long forgotten back in the castle.

She squeezes her mother’s hand, and says, “mommy, can we make another necklace? Two necklaces - one for me, one for you.”

“You bet we can,” Tine’s mommy says, and they spend glorious hours basking in the simple joy of searching for the shiniest, roundest acorn, only stopping to nibble at sour blackberries as Tine’s mother picks them up.

Later, when both she and her mother arbor twin necklaces, Tine thinks, maybe Cousin Ishtar kept the old one; maybe one day, Cousin Ishtar finds her way to Silesse too.


End file.
